State Shinto
The Restoration of 1868 brought Shinto into prominence, at least temporarily, since it was regarded as representing the 'way' of the national gods or ancestors. The first act of the Jingi Jimukyoku ('Bureau of Ecclesiastical Affairs'), established in 1868, was to effect a complete separation of Shinto and Buddhism, the former of which had been practically absorbed in the latter ever since the time of Gyogi ( died 822) and Kukai ( died 835). Political leaders in the government, regarding Shinto as the foundation of national morality, instituted it as a State religion, giving Shinto priests official rank, whereas Buddhism was subjected by them to iconoclastic measures. Buddhist images were destroyed, the temples dilapidated, and the bonzes advised to return to the 'right kind of life.' This continued until 1872, when the Kyobusho ('Ecclesiastic Department') was established, and Buddhist and Shinto priests were equally recognized as KyodOshoku (official moral instructors). The Shinto revival subsided, and Buddhism continued in its inertness until Christianity quickened it into renewed activity. State Shinto was not established until 1882.
There were three forms of Shinto in the 19th Century. Domestic Shino still survives in households where a kamidana, a shelf, would be placed for giving offerings or prayers, remembering ancestors, the spirits of ancestors and perhaps local spirits. The second form of Shinto is sectarian Shinto. As history developed, groups within Shinto became interested in certain elements. There were for example mountain sects that that would travel and climb mountains like Mount Fuji in Japan and worship the spirit of the mountain. Other sects were involved in purification and healing her aspects of the religion. The Japanese Government, about 1930, required the registration of all religions, and recognized thirteen major sects of Shinto. This arbitrary and restrictive classification was stopped in 1945, although registration continued. State Shinto emerged in the 19th and 20th Century, when the Emperor to achieve greater power declared control over traditional shrines.
For 1,300 years Shinto (The Way of the Gods) was challenged and eclipsed by Buddhism as the imperial dynasty was eclipsed by the shogunate. The movement for an independent Shinto grew stronger from the 17th to the end of the 19th century. The emerging nationalism of the late Tokugawa period combined with the political needs of the Meiji Restoration (1868) oligarchs to reform Shinto into a state religion. Under Emperor Meiji, beginning in 1868, Shinto was forced to separate from Buddhism, and places of worship had to decide whether to declare themselves Shinto or Buddhist. In 1882, a national religion State Shinto was set up and the divinity of the emperor as a descendant of Amaterasu was officially taught in the schools. State Shinto became Japan's state religion, a cult of the dead based on ancestor worship, and resumed its interrupted task of molding the Japanese people for their divine mission of conquest.
Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a Shinto-oriented state much like the state of 1,000 years earlier. An Office of Shinto Worship was established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance. The kokutai ideas of the Mito school were embraced, and the divine ancestry of the imperial house was emphasized. The government supported Shinto teachers, a small but important move. Although the Office of Shinto Worship was demoted in 1872, by 1877 the Home Ministry controlled all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects were given state recognition. Shinto was at last released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored. Although Buddhism suffered from state sponsorship of Shinto, it had its own resurgence. Christianity was also legalized, and Confucianism remained an important ethical doctrine.
Some Buddhists did not simply comply reluctantly with State Shinto. Rather, some enthusiastically promoted a movement called "Imperial Way Buddhism" (Kodo Bukkyo). Imperial-way Buddhism taught that Japanese Buddhism was superior to all other forms and then identified Buddhism with the state and the state with the emperor. To worship and serve the emperor was the same as worshiping and serving the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Takasa Nichiko, the administrative head of the Nichiren Shu, and other leading Nichiren Shu clergy formed "The Association for the Practice of Imperial-Way Buddhism" (Kodo Bukkyo Gyodo Kai) in 1938. This association even identified the Gohonzon as the Japanese emperor: "...the principle image of adoration in imperial-way Buddhism is not Buddha Shakyamuni who appeared in India, but his majesty, the emperor..."
It was Shinto that fostered Japan's feverish nationalism. It was Shinto that inspired Article I of Japan's constitution, which said: "The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal," and Article III, which said: "The Emperor is sacred and inviolable." It was Shinto that taught Japanese law students: "Subjects have no mind apart from the will of the Emperor." Shinto taught Japanese Army privates: "Those who, with the words 'Tenno Heika Banzai!' (May the Emperor live forever!) on their lips, have consummated a tragic death in battle, whether they are good or whether they are bad, are thereby sanctified."
State Shinto was less a religion than a patriotic worship of the emperor used initially to overthrow the Japanese feudal system. This cult was dominated by highly nationalistic fervor. Nowhere else in modern history do we find so pronounced an example of government sponsorship of a religion as in Japan's support of shinto.
Leaders and adherents of popular religious movements, independent religious entrepreneurs, women seeking to raise the prestige of their households, and men with political ambitions all found an association with shinto useful for self-promotion local-level civil administrations and parish organizations have consistently patronized shinto as a way to raise the prospects of provincial communities. A conduit for access to the prestige of the state, shinto has increased not only the power of the center of society over the periphery but also the power of the periphery over the center.
The construction of shrines in the 1920s and 1930s was sanctioned by the Imperial Japanese government as a means tospread and reinforce "State Shinto". This ideological movement was meant to make the Japanese people "of one mind and one spirit". Goals also included a sense of unified destiny, ademonstration that the Japanese were uniquely special, and promoting a cult of the divine emperor. "State Shinto" was a key element along withthe education system in militarizing Japanese society between 1920 and 1945. "State Shinto" was also important inmobilizing the Japanese people for the military adventures in China starting in 1932 and eventually for the Pacific Campaign in World War nagainst the United States and its allies.
"State Shinto" is different from both earlier and post-World War II forms of the Shinto religion. "State Shinto" emphasized the difference and special destiny of the Japanese people. It also heavily emphasized the divine origin of the imperial family and the duty of all Japanese subjects to the Emperor. Shinto was particularly favored by the Japanese government as a means to acculturate indigenous and immigrant populations into more Japanese patterns. State Shinto, becoming increasingly militant and nationalistic, was a key element in this ideological undertaking.
Shinto flourished as a state religion until 1945 under government patronage. Japan's defeat in World War II and the emperor's denial of his divinity brought an end to State Shinto. Sometimes considered synonymous with State Shinto before 1945 was Shrine Shinto (Jinja Shinto), but after the war most Shinto traditions were observed in the home rather than in shrines. Most shrines, which had previously benefited from state sponsorship, were organized into the Association of Shinto Shrines after 1946. Sect Shinto (Kyoha Shinto) consists of more than eighty private religious sects, which conduct services in houses of worship or lecture halls rather than in shrines.
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